The Giant Rat of Sumatra

Matilda Briggs was not the name of a young woman, Watson, . . . It was a ship which is associated with the giant rat of Sumatra, a story for which the world is not yet prepared."
-Sherlock Holmes, The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire, The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes


Doctor John H. Watson had a mass of clients lately so he would not be accompanying Holmes those dreadful few days in the late spring of 1894.

Mr. Sherlock Holmes the world's greatest consulting detective had been approached by a representative of Lloyd's of London to see to a ship the Matilda Briggs when it landed at the docks of Liverpool.

"You think something will happen to the ship on its landing?" Holmes asked as he lit his pipe.

"Well, one of our clients seems particularly interested in making sure the ship arrives safely with all of its goods brought safely to shore," the Lloyd's representative replied.

"And who is this client?" Holmes asked as he blew smoke rings into the air.

"Well, I'm not at liberty to say, Mr. Holmes," the Lloyd's representative answered.

"Then I'm not at liberty to help you," Holmes folded his arms and gazed at his bust of Julius Caesar on the mantle, "before I take a case, I need to know everything up front."

"Well, if you must know the client is a circus," the Lloyd's man blushed.

"A circus?" Holmes gazed with great mirth at the Lloyd's representative.

"The Steinenfrank Circus which hails from York," the Lloyd's man explained, "owned by Mr. Magus Steinenfrank originally from Berlin."

"Magus Steinenfrank," Holmes chewed on the end of his pipe, "wasn't he the one kicked out of Germany for allegedly putting a black magic curse on the penis of the then Crown Prince and currently Kaiser Wilhelm II?".

"Yes, that's the one," the Lloyd's man nodded.

"They say that's the reason why Kaiser Wilhelm has such a long pointed spike atop his Prussian military helment," Holmes mused aloud, "to make up for his shortcomings elsewhere."

"That's what they say," the Lloyd's rep agreed.

"And yet they say old Bismarck's thoroughly exhausted wife keeps telling her maids, 'We've got to sink the Bismarck to the bottom of the sea' so she can finally get some rest," Holmes sucked the sweet Dutch tobacco through his pipe.

"Will you take the case, Holmes?" the Lloyd's man asked.

"I take it Steinenfrank's Circus has some goods on this ship the Matilda Briggs which it wants to see safely ashore," Holmes blew smoke rings in the direction of Julius Caesar's bust.

"That is correct," the Lloyd's man coughed from some of the Holmesian pipe smoke he inhaled, "some exotic animals."

"Exotic animals?" Holmes looked quizzical, "where from?".

"The island of Sumatra," the Lloyd's man coughed vigourously.

"Interesting," Holmes looked at his tin of pipe tobacco, "although the seller of this tobacco has an Amsterdam address, I believe this tobacco itself is from Sumatra as well."

"Then God help us all," the Lloyd's rep sneezed into his handkerchief.

To be continued.